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The Swiss Jazz Award 2019 goes to Othella Dallas

The 93-year-old American singer living in Switzerland is honored for her extraordinary artistic career. The ceremony for the award will take place on Sunday June 23, during JazzAscona.

Othella Dallas

The recipient of the 2019 Swiss Jazz Award (at its 13th edition) is Othella Dallas. The 93-year-old American singer living in Switzerland is honored for her extraordinary artistic career. The ceremony for the award will take place on Sunday June 23, during JazzAscona.

Before becoming a singer, Othella Dallas, born in Memphis back in 1925, was a successful dancer at Catherine Dunham’s school and dance company in New York. She honed her skills as a singer in the 1950s in Paris; success came quickly and she was soon sharing the stage with world stars such as Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr, Nat King Cole, Quincy Jones, Sonny Stitt and King Kurtis, to mention a few. In Switzerland since the 1960s, Othella Dallas opted for tranquility, prioritizing family. However, she never stopped touring. In 1975 she founded the Othella Dallas Dance School in Basel and, in 2018, she made an impressive comeback with her successful album “I Live The Life I Love”, which officially made her the Grand Old Lady del Jazz, del Blues and Funk. A guest on the country’s most prestigious stages, aged 93, Othella Dalls still enjoys live performances, for the joy of her audience who is regularly swept away by her intensity and drive. This year’s Swiss Jazz Award is therefore a tribute to one of the most charismatic personalities in Switzerland’s show and music scene.

Conceived in 2007 by Radio Swiss Jazz and JazzAscona, the Swiss Jazz Award has always promoted Swiss jazz music. Initially intended as an audience award, in 2017 and 2018 it was awarded to a worthy Swiss musician, selected by a jury of experts. As of this year, the award is organized by JazzAscona with the support of the Ticino Migros Cultural Percentage and Radio Swiss Jazz as media partner.